


A Quiet Romance

by Persiflage



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Comfort Food, Director Daisy Johnson, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Inhumans (Marvel), Missions, Older Man/Younger Woman, POV Outsider, Phil Coulson's Prosthetic Hand, Public Display of Affection, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, Teasing, The Retreat Safe House (Marvel), Watchdogs (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 10:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9487022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: Daisy and Phil's relationship seen from the PoV of a new young Inhuman Secret Warrior.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I talked myself into this plot bunny on the strength of various people's comments on this [wonderful gifset](http://johnsonandcoulson.com/post/156411252860/little-cousy-things-comfort-your-bae-when) by hamsterfactor.
> 
> It's only the second time I've written an Outsider PoV on Cousy/Skoulson, and it was an interesting writing experience. 
> 
> (I hope I got Elena's Spanish correct! Let me know if not, please.)

Emilia watched as Elena more or less threw herself at Mack as she and Daisy came down the ramp from the Zephyr1: Yo-Yo was never subtle about how glad she was to see Mack, and Emilia liked that she could see how much they loved each other. Yo-Yo had told her that she and Mack had been together for 4 years, but it was obvious they were every bit as much in love as when they first started dating. She watched as the Director greeted Phil (it still felt a bit weird to Emilia to call him 'Phil', not 'Agent Coulson', when he was so much older than her. Not that he looked old, she had to admit – it was true that he had very little hair, and there were lines around his eyes and mouth, but he was also very fit and buff - not that she'd ever say that aloud, of course). Where Elena kissed Mack in full view of literally everyone, Daisy just smiled at Phil, who nodded back. Where was the romance in that, Emilia wondered. She knew that Elena had told her that Phil and Daisy were very private people, but she'd never even seen them holding hands, much less kissing or hugging one another. It was very weird.

"So how did our newest Secret Warrior do today?" asked Phil, startling Emilia out of her abstraction. 

"She was good," Daisy told him, looking very pleased, and Emilia felt herself blushing. She was glad she had such dark skin because at least it wasn't obvious she was blushing. "More than pulled her weight."

Phil grinned at her. "Well done, Agent."

"Thanks," Emilia said. She looked uncertainly at the Director. "Do I need – ?"

"Debriefing in an hour," Daisy told her. "You're free until then – we'll be having takeout while we debrief – Mack will run out for it, so tell him if there's something specific you want to eat."

"Thank you." Emilia smiled at them both, then headed towards the kitchen to grab a soda and a snack until they ate.

She glanced back at Phil and Daisy as she followed Mack and Elena, who was talking non-stop about the mission to her boyfriend, and wondered what it would take for Daisy to kiss Phil like Elena kissed Mack.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

"Are you sure you don't want anything else to eat?" 

Emilia struggled to open her eyes, squinting at the room she was in: it was somewhere unfamiliar, and she panicked for a moment until she realised it was Phil's voice she'd just heard speaking.

"I'm fine, Phil, I promise. Three grilled cheese and a big bowl of soup's enough." Daisy sounded exhausted, Emilia thought, then remembered why she'd be feeling that way: the Director had had to rescue both Emilia and Phil after they were captured by Watchdogs during what was meant to be just a routine surveillance mission, and Daisy had had to use her powers to knock out nearly a dozen men before leaping all three of them to safety. Emilia recalled that Dr Cho had once told her that using her powers a lot required masses of Daisy's energy. 

"You're awake then," Daisy said, and Emilia squinted up at the Director, managed a nod, then groaned as she tried to sit up. "Carefully." Daisy slid an arm around her shoulders and eased her upright, and Emilia mumbled her thanks.

"Are you hungry?" Phil asked. He was standing across the room by a kitchen table.

"I couldn't eat anything right now," Emilia told him. She felt really nauseous, to tell the truth.

"Feeling sick?" Daisy asked sympathetically, and she nodded. "Bathroom's through there. Second door on the right." She pointed across the room.

"Where are we?" asked Emilia, then gave Phil a grateful smile as he brought her a bottle of water.

"The Retreat. It's a SHIELD safehouse," Phil said.

Emilia remembered she'd heard something about it from Agent May, but right now, couldn't recall what she'd been told. "How long will we be here?" 

"Agent May will come and collect us in a few hours," Phil told her. "You can rest until then."

"I'm sorry," Emilia told him.

"For what?" he asked, looking surprised.

"For messing up the op. I know – "

"Emilia, you didn't mess up the op." He came and crouched beside the couch where she was sitting. "You did absolutely nothing wrong – it was pure bad luck, that's all." His tone was both sincere and reassuring, but she didn't feel entirely reassured.

"But – " she began.

"Emilia." Daisy clasped her shoulder briefly. "If Phil says you did nothing wrong, then trust me, you did nothing wrong. He's been a field agent a long time so he wouldn't lie to you about this."

"Okay."

"Good." Daisy gave her a nod, then moved across the room, and Emilia turned her attention back to Phil, who smiled at her.

"Can I get you anything besides the water?" he asked, and the Director chuckled, making them both turn to look at her. "What?"

She smirked at him. "Such a mother hen, Phil," she said, her tone light and teasing, and Emilia couldn't help giggling when he pouted at her.

"You know very well that you love my mother hen mode," he said, his tone confident, as if he knew she couldn't argue with him.

Her expression softened. "Yeah, Phil, I do."

Emilia ducked her head. She could recall once thinking that Daisy and Phil weren't very romantic, but in the two months since she joined Daisy's Secret Warriors team, she'd begun to revise that opinion – they might not be obviously romantic like Mack and Elena, but she'd started to realise that they did love each other – they just didn't go in for public displays of affection in the way that Mack and Elena did. It was kinda sweet, really.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

"How did I not know you've got a prosthetic hand?" Emilia asked, baffled.

Phil raised his eyebrows at her. "Why should you know?" His tone was light, curious even, but she felt bad for asking the question because he was right, why should she know. It'd never been relevant until now.

"I'm sorry, Phil, that was rude, and – "

"It's okay," he said, cutting her apology short, then wincing as he watched the Watchdogs' tech guy doing something to the prosthetic. 

She was careful not to stare at his stump with its metal band to which the prosthetic had been attached just a few minutes ago, but it drew the eye rather.

"Mack cut it off," he told her, then chuckled when she gaped at him in absolute disbelief. "There were Terrigenesis crystals involved. Someone dropped one, and it could, potentially, have killed the three of us in the room with it, so I caught it before it broke. Well, that was the plan." He rubbed his right hand over his face, and she thought he looked exhausted. "It broke in my hand and started to create a cocoon around my hand and arm – Mack chopped it off with a fire axe since none of us knew whether or not it'd kill me or put me through Terrigenesis."

"I'm sorry," Emilia said.

He shrugged. "It was a long time ago, now. Well, feels a long time ago. Having a robot hand is as normal to me as having powers is to you or Daisy." He glanced across the room, then threw his arm around Emilia's shoulders and pulled her down as something went boom, and the two Watchdogs in the room with them screamed.

A few minutes later she and Phil straightened up together to see that the two men were dead, and Phil's prosthetic was smoking at the wrist.

"Did your robot hand just blow up two men?" she asked disbelievingly.

He smirked at her. "Safety feature."

" _Safety_?" she repeated.

He chuckled. "It's a security thing – stops the bad guys from tampering with it."

"Don't you ever worry about it going off accidentally?" Emilia asked worriedly.

He looked surprised. "No. I turn it off when I'm not on a field op. Besides it requires specific circumstances to be activated, and the chances of those occurring accidentally when I'm not on a field op are nonexistent."

Emilia nodded, then asked, "What happens now?"

"We wait for Daisy and the others to come and get us. I managed to send a signal out when we were captured so Daisy will have been tracking my – our – location via the prosthetic. And that explosion will also have registered. She'll probably be here in less than an hour."

In fact it was only 15 minutes later before they felt the building shaking, and Phil's face lit up in a massive grin. Emilia had to look away, because he looked so adoring, and it was a bit embarrassing to see such an expression on his face – it felt like it ought to be private.

The door crashed open and Daisy strode in looking magnificent, her right arm outstretched, and Emilia realised for the first time that she had a bit of a girl crush on the Director of SHIELD.

"Hi, honey, I'm home!" she called as pieces of the door continued to fall all around her.

"Darling, you're late," Phil said in a chiding tone, and Emilia couldn't help rolling her eyes at the pair of them. This was actually more embarrassing than an obvious PDA, she thought.

"Sorry love, the traffic was bad." Daisy grabbed Phil's prosthetic – which had stopped smoking – from the work table, then stepped over the corpse of the hapless Watchdog who'd got himself blown up, before she fitted it back in place. "Are you okay?" 

Her voice was low and her expression so tender that Emilia had to look away, feeling a mixture of envy and embarrassment.

"We're both fine," Phil said, and Emilia glanced back to see him giving her a slightly rueful look, as if he was aware of how embarrassing he and the Director were being, but didn't actually care.

"Good." Daisy brushed her fingertips over his wrist, and Emilia tried not to blush because the touch looked sensual, somehow. She found herself recalling that she'd seen Daisy doing this before, and the gesture suddenly took on a different kind of significance – as if it was a reminder to them both of what he'd lost, or what he'd survived. 

"Let's get you out of here, shall we?" Daisy suggested, and moments later their handcuffed wrists and ankles were free, the shackles vibrated into bits on the floor.

She guided them out of the room where they'd been held, and Emilia saw a number of downed men in the main part of the warehouse, and a larger number of SHIELD agents who were busy securing the unconscious men with zip ties.

"How's the hand?" Daisy asked as she nodded over at Agents May and Piper who were clearly leading the clean up.

Phil flexed it, rotating his wrist, then tapped at it with his other hand, and Emilia saw a computer display pop up, hovering above his forearm. "Seems to all be in working order," he told her.

"Good." The Director glanced at Emilia, and smirked. "Cool, isn't it?"

Emilia, embarrassed at being caught watching, nodded. "Very cool."

Daisy grinned, clearly pleased with Emilia's reaction, then she ushered the two of them up the ramp into the Quinjet that was outside the warehouse.

"We're a go, Max," Daisy called over to the pilot, and he waved, then took off. "We'll get you two into the Infirmary so Dr Cho can check you out, then Max can go back for the rest of our team."

Less than five minutes later, Emilia felt the slight bump of the Quinjet attaching itself to the top of the Zephyr1, then Daisy ushered them both down to the Infirmary, where Dr Cho was already waiting for them. Emilia noticed that the Director lurked by the wall, her arms folded across her chest as she watched intently while Dr Cho checked over Phil's prosthetic. The doctor had already checked Emilia cuts and bruises, and put some salve on her wrists which were red and sore from struggling against the handcuffs.

"I don't want either of you involved in any field ops, not even surveillance ones, for the next few days," Daisy told them when Dr Cho finally let them go.

"Oh but – " Emilia began.

"I'm serious," Daisy said in a stern tone.

Emilia glanced at Phil, who shook his head slightly. "Yes, Director," she said.

"Good. Now go and get some rest. It'll be a few hours before we get back to the base."

Emilia nodded, and turned away, but not before she saw Daisy had curled her fingers around Phil's left wrist. She hurried towards the bunks, not wanting to get caught watching.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

Emilia listened to the joint briefing Daisy and Phil were giving with a growing sense of discomfiture – the pair were finishing each other's sentences in the most ridiculous manner, and she found herself wishing they'd just kiss each other instead. She'd caught them giving each other wordless stares over coffee a couple of mornings ago, and they'd seemed quite oblivious to Emilia's presence, even after she cleared her throat. Why had she ever thought they weren't romantic when it was surely obvious to everyone with eyes that they were actually totally besotted with each other.

"Penny for them," Elena said in an undertone, nudging her shoulder.

Emilia shook her head, not wanting to admit that she was a tiny bit embarrassed by the Director and Phil. 

"They're like a crazy double act," Elena observed, her eyes twinkling. 

"Yeah," agreed Emilia fervently. She heard Mack's chuckle rumbling quietly from Elena's other side as the three of them, along with a dozen other agents, stood listening to the mission briefing.

"Have they always been this way?" she asked after a few more minutes.

"Stupidly intense?" Elena asked, then smirked. "They were worse when I first knew them – they weren't even together then. Now _that_ was truly embarazoso. Daisy spent more than six months away from SHIELD and Phil – ?" She shook her head. "He pined like a forest."

Emilia clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her startled giggles, and then flushed when Daisy raised an eyebrow at her from across the room. "You'll get me in trouble," she muttered at Elena, who just chuckled quietly.

"I'll protect you, little sister," the older woman promised.

"You should," Emilia told her, and Elena flashed a warm smile at her.

She made a point of paying close attention to the rest of the briefing, not wanting to risk getting into any further trouble and Elena, to Emilia's relief, said nothing further to betray her into inappropriately timed humour.

As everyone hurried – in a surprisingly orderly fashion – to assemble the gear they needed for the op, Emilia waited worriedly to see if Daisy was going to reprimand her for her inattention, but Mack and Phil had cornered her and the three of them were engaged in a serious looking conversation so when Elena beckoned Emilia over to join her, she quickly moved across to where the older woman was checking ammunition supplies.

"You'll get used to them," Elena said, nodding discreetly to Daisy and Phil.

"I thought I had," Emilia tells her. "But then they – "

"Do something dorky?" suggested Elena and Emilia giggled quietly. 

"Or just plain embarrassing. Way more embarrassing than sucking each other's faces." She realised what she'd said and blushed hotly. "Uh – sorry – that – "

"It's fine." Elena waved off her apology. "It's Mack's fault. He's such a turtle man." Emilia giggled again. "He took forever to actually make a move – kiss me, I mean – so now I can't help kissing him all the time, even in public. He finds it embarazoso, of course, but me, I do not care. I want the world to know I love him."

"I don't think anyone's in any doubt about that," said Daisy from behind them, and Emilia span around, blushing all over again. The Director's attention was wholly focused on Yo-Yo, though. "Elena, I know you have little respect for authority, but please try not to distract your fellow agents during a briefing."

Elena snorted, eyes rolling. "You never used to have much respect for authority either."

Daisy planted her hands on her hips. "I am authority now," she pointed out. "Or do you think I should've turned down the opportunity to become the first real Inhuman Director of SHIELD? The chance to protect our people properly."

"Daisy, amiga, relax. Te estoy tomando el pelo. You're the best Director SHIELD's ever had."

"Yes she is."

Phil's comment from behind Emilia startled her as she hadn't realised he'd joined them. He reached out and ran his left hand down Daisy's back, his expression soft and admiring. Daisy shifted slightly, her shoulder pressing against Phil's, and he slipped his arm around her body. Emilia glanced at Elena, who was smirking. 

"You know, for the longest time, Emilia here thought you two weren't very romantic."

"Elena!" cried Emilia, embarrassed at her friend's betrayal.

"Because we don't suck each other's faces in public?" Daisy asked with a smirk.

"It's none of my business," Emilia muttered, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her.

Daisy's hand gently raised her chin so she was looking the Director in the eye. "What you have to remember, Emilia, is that when Phil and I got together the Sokovia Accords were in place, and SHIELD had a specific non-fraternisation rule for humans and Inhumans – "

"Which Mack and Elena flouted," Phil chipped in, smirking at Yo-Yo.

Daisy snorted. "Of course they did. As previously mentioned, Elena has little respect for authority." 

Emilia could see the Director's eyes were twinkling and she could tell Elena was smirking.

"Because of those things, Phil and I had to keep our relationship secret or risk becoming Romeo and Juliet – "

"Daisy's Romeo in this scenario, of course," Phil told Emilia, and Daisy rolled her eyes, which made Emilia giggle.

"Anyway," Daisy continued with heavy emphasis on the word. "We didn't go in for PDA. And even though I'm the Director and that non-fraternisation rule is gone, and the Sokovia Accords have been dismantled, we've never really got into the habit of 'sucking each other's faces' where everyone can see." She tilted her head at Emilia, who nodded.

"I understand," she said. "And it's really none of my business."

"Maybe not, but that rule and those Accords are an important part of our history as Inhumans. It's as well that we don't forget because those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." She turned her head and pressed her lips to Phil's cheek, then said, "Let's finish prepping this mission, then."

"Yes ma'am." Emilia watched as the Director and Phil moved away to talk to some of the other agents, and she thought that it was actually pretty obvious how much they loved each other, if you paid attention. She wondered, a little wistfully, if she'd ever love anyone that much – she hoped so.


End file.
